These Personal, Heartbreaking Stories From Typhoon Survivors Show Us Why Help Is Urgent

CNN

Many struggling typhoon victims are without food, medicine and even a way to tell family members abroad about the tragic losses they are facing. So they’re turning to cameramen to break the heart-wrenching news.

“I’m just letting you know, Josie is gone. Please forgive me, I couldn’t save her, because we all got separated when the strong waves hit,” a grieving man told CNN affiliate ABS-CBN about his daughter's death. "I couldn’t even hold onto my child.”

The man said his daughter’s body has been lying on a corner for three days.

Another man hoped his wife in Virginia would get the awful message that their son and daughter –- Justin and Ella –- had passed away.

“Father…if you are watching this. If you can, please, I’m begging you, I haven’t had any[thing] to eat. There isn’t any food,” another man said.

To be sure, the government and nonprofits have mobilized to bring much-needed supplies to victims, but because of the scale of the disaster and travel obstacles, the aid is not reaching desperate survivors.

"We need help. Nothing is happening," Aristone Balute, an 81-year-old who didn't get on a flight out of Tecloban, told the Associated Press. "We haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon."

An AP reporter said he saw no sign of organized food, medicine or water delivery in the city.